DevLog

As of this update Steam is no longer responsible for the Waves² Leaderboards as the game is now using Gamesparks to manage all of it’s online functionality.

This means no more score limit of 2,147,483,647 as the scores are now stored as 64bit integers. If you get a score that maxes out one of those then you must be cheating.

Every combination of Game Mode and Arena Type now has it’s own Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Season based leaderboards and you are awarded points every day, week and month which increase your Rank for that mode.

Seasons are an arbitrary length often determined by major balance updates. The current season is “Early Access”.

PATCH NOTES

– LEADERBOARDS ● Integrated Gamesparks. ● Added Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Season and Ranked Leaderboards for every GameMode/Arena Combination in Arcade. ● Rank is awarded at midnight UTC each day for daily, each Monday for weekly and on the 1st of each month for Monthly leaderboards.

Are you Unknown, a Newbie or are you Notorious? This update adds User Ranks to your GRID Profile. Cash in your hard earned Reputation in exchange for a better User Rank. Higher ranked Users have a higher Level Cap on their Avatars unlocking up to 30 upgrade points!

What use are all those Upgrade points though without something to upgrade?

The Repository provides all our Runners with access* to the latest software updates for their Avatar. Check the Repository frequently for new software prototypes as well as updates to existing projects!

*Access requires expenditure of Reputation.

– GRID

● User Rank is now displayed on the GRID Dashboard. ● User Rank can be increased by spending Reputation. ● User Rank determines Avatar Level Cap (6-30). ● Loadouts can now have less than the maximum number of upgrade points. ● Equipped Items Max Level is determined by Version (Prototype, Alpha, Beta, RC, Stable, Modified) ● New Repository Folder in File Manager. ● Software can be installed from Repository in exchange for Rep. ● Repository updates after clearing a Server. ● Filters added to File Manager folders. ● Can now select multiple files in File Manager. ● Clicking on a File will show a Description of it’s content. ● Mousewheel can now be used to scroll through Files. ● Rep is now shown on the Status Bar when in GRID menus.

– Items

● Some Items have been renamed. This is a purely cosmetic change. ● Some Items have new icons. This is a purely cosmetic change.

– Bug Fixes

● Multiple music player bugs fixed. ● Spark weapon should no longer ignore the shield in Shoot The Core missions. ● General performance optimisations.

– Discord

There is a Squid In A Box Discord now for anybody who wants to hang out and talk about the game with other players and the Developer (me!)

Reputation & File Lockers

Reputation is the currency of the GRID. Without it you’re nobody. You need it to get access to new software, create proxies and heal brain damage; it’s also good for bragging rights too.

You can gain Rep by taking over networks, completing objectives and releasing files you’ve liberated to the public.

You can find files in File Lockers. Each one must be broken open revealing the vulnerable file; you can now download a copy of the file to your local system. Be on your toes though as the network security don’t take kindly to strangers downloading things without permission – you’ll have to defend yourself.

Downloaded files can be found in your File Manager after a Run where they can be uploaded and cashed in for Reputation.

Discord

There is a Squid In A Box <a href=https://discord.gg/b4uYczM>Discord</a> now for anybody who wants to hang out and talk about the game with other players and the Developer (me!)

Patch Notes

– General ● Improved Game Thread performance. ● Pickups will no longer timeout during travel.

– Arcade Mode ● “Tiny Cube” is now in all game modes.

– GRID Mode ● Starting a new game provides a choicee of 2 Avatars with unique skins and loadouts. ● Files can be downloaded from File Lockers which can be found in all systems. ● Downloaded Files can be “Uploaded” using the File Manager to earn Rep. ● Rep is rewarded for completing objectives and controlling systems. ● Rep can be spent in the GRID Loadout Editor to unlock items (temporary). ● GRID Leaderboards now track Reputation.

New Enemy!

Introducing the Tiny Cube (Better names on the forums please).

Currently only spawning in Survival Mode as they are something of an experiment the Tiny Cube is the first of many new eneemies to go in the game. I’m planning on rolling them out one or two at a time so I can gather feedback on each one as I balance them.

Tiny Cubes are slightly faster than their larger cousin but cannot Charge and are not guarenteed to kill the player on touch. They have a large health pool and high armour with a slow regeneration. They explode on death damaging enemies within 500 units. They sometimes get stuck in walls when they spawn (known issue).

There will be more forms of Cube enemy being added to the game in the future with the Tiny Cube being the smallest, least dangerous and cutest.

GRID Changes

This update will invalidate GRID save games as the new data structure isn’t compatible with the old one.

The Administrator AI has a new ICE deeck to play with. This version is more modular with more low-cost cards for it to play. This should mean that there is more variety in the exact kind of enemies that get spawned on each Server. This will be a constantly changing process over the rest of development so is by no means final.

Bonus Objectives

Each Server now has 3 Bonus Objectives to be achieved. Similar to the very first version of GRID that ever existed theese objectives are currently stat driven although I have plans for more complex objectives later on.

Whenever a Server is generated the Admin will play 3 unique Objective cards on it to create that servers Objectives. There are currently only 4 possible objectives available but this number will increease in the future. Ideas for future objectives are welcomed so please post them in the forums.

Progress towards an objective is saved so you don’t have to complete them in a single run.

Wanted Level

GRID mode no longer uses the same dynamic difficulty system as Arcade mode and instead now uses a Wanted Level system.

At Wanted Level 0 only Passive enemies will spawn representing the Server at rest. Once you start damaging subsystems however they will send out a call for help pumping the Wanted Level up to one and allowing the AI to start spawning more aggressive enemies.

If you don’t attack any Subsystems for a while your wanted level will decrease and it can eventually return to zero. This is unrelated to the Trace mechanic which can only be halted by disconnecting.

Wanted Levels are reduced by:

Player Death

Building Control Nodes

If 20 seconds has passed without an increase to Wanted Level.

Changelist

General

Camera now tries to keep important actors on screen such as Subsystems and Triggers.

All Enemies that follow the player can now use Navmesh Pathfinding if they cannot reach the players location.

Cube Avoidance has been improved.

Arcade Mode

Can now choose which type of Arena to play in on the Arcade mode screen.

Added new “Tiny Cube” enemy to Survival Arcade mode (experimental).

GRID Mode

GRID now uses a “Wanted Level” system for controlling Enemy Spawning.

All Servers in GRID now have Bonus Objectives that can be attempted.

Server ICE has been rebalanced.

UI

Time Extend message now correctly displays the time.

Keybinds settings screen added for keyboard and controller.

Added on-screen prompt for triggers that need to be “used” to activate.

Objective tracker added to GRID HUD.

Controllers now use a virtual Cursor to interact with the menus.

Bug Fixes

Fix for potential crash when using Emergency Teleport when being Charged by a Cube.

ToDo

These are things that look like bugs but in fact need to be implemented (usually because the UI already has space for the feature).

Upgrades display not currently functioning.

No Gameover when fatal brain damage incurred during GRID.

Attached Hardware display not functioning.

Clicking on Installed ICE doesn’t do anything.

Nothing is awarded for clearing Servers.

Dive mode doesn’t use Harder Room Styles as Player gets Deeper.

Known Issues

Some AMD Graphics cards crash on Startup. This is related to UE-51650[issues.unrealengine.com] There is nothing I can do about this at this time.

When creating the File Manager and Inventory screens for Waves² I found myself needing to sort lots of arrays of various types by largely arbitrary properties. I adapted this snippet to be able to sort arrays of either objects or structs by almost any UProperty within them. You’ll have to implement sorting by structures yourself but this took care of sorting tables full of strings or numerical values. More

I will be updating the Preview branch with an Alpha 4 RC hopefully tonight (Sunday the 12th of March) so those of you who enjoy finding crash bugs can go to town on it and do all the things I never thought to try.

Alpha 4 changes around game balance quite a bit so there will be a Leaderboard wipe to accompany it’s release.

Since Unstable was originally created for testing the Shipping build of the game (which is now the standard version everybody uses) it has been removed and replaced with a new branch called “Preview” which is going to be used to test upcoming major updates.

Anybody can use the Preview branch and there is no password required. Just be aware that things are far more likely to not work correctly/be balanced/be fun in this version.

To kick everything off the Preview branch has been updated with the first Alpha 4 Preview build.

After many weeks of work the Card Game AI system and Modular game modes tech is in place. From the point of view of the players you won’t see any obvious differences. What you do as a player hasn’t changed AT ALL. The main difference is in how content is authored and how enemies are spawned which I will go over below. More

Alpha 3 has had it’s final patch today bringing the total number of Items up to 36 and thee total number of Item combinations to 46,656 (not counting the ways you can distribute the Upgrade points which I don’t know how to calculate but is immense).

That means I’ve started working on the Alpha 4 update today and wanted you all to know what’s going to be in store.

Now as a quick aside I’d like to mention that there is a backstory of a sort to Waves² it’s just never really been a prominent part of the game. The idea is that the game itself is an operating system used by hackers to navigate Cyberspace. That’s why enemies are called Bugs and Viruses and why every Arena that gets generated expresses it’s seed value as an IP address (that plus they are much shorter and easier to remember than 32bit integers).